Black Lilies
by Keo Siph
Summary: Side story of 'Prologue to Black Lilies'. Azumi RBHS and Hiei YYH confront in a clash of metal.


Black Lilies

All **Yu Yu Hakusho** characters are owned by Togashi Yoshihiro/Sheisha, Fuji TV, Pierrot, and FUNimation. 

**Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School** is owned by Reiji Saiga/Sora Inoue, Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., LTD., Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., and Mixx Entertainment, Inc.

Thank you for surviving the disclaimer. Enjoy!

This fic was inspired by "I'm With You" by Avril Lavigne.

Also, for mentionable help, the anime music video, "Venus in a Bottle" by Aluminum Studios.

                I followed him out into the streets, watching the rain soak his clothes to his skin as it soaked mine as well. What a dreary day, with all this rain, and death, and near death, and… I had the sullen feeling that Hiei was in depression. Which was, of course, why I followed him. He just seemed… lost… I wandered after him all the way to the park, then deep into it, so deep I had lost all sense of direction, and we had left the concrete trail, going along a relatively beaten dirt walkway. He stopped, suddenly, and turned, his first acknowledgment I existed for the last twenty minutes. I realized, suddenly, that I had, with my longer stride, come from eight feet behind him to around two, all in slightly companionable silence. I gulped, a bit too loudly, when his eyes narrowed dangerously, making his red iris sparkle with venom.  His hand dashed for his katana as mine did for the kiribayashi and they clashed long before the rest of my logical mind figured out what I was doing. I lost ground for the few painstaking seconds while my instincts kicked in, and then pushed him backwards, deeper into the park, which seemed almost like the woods by now. Finally, he opened up, my blade dashed across his shoulder, and I paused, holding my place as he stood there, waiting, blood flowing down his arm, to which he paid no attention. I refrained from moving as I pondered, unsure of whether to help him or continue the attack, so I just stood there. His katana hand twitched, then he attacked again, when I just blocked, not taking the offensive at all. I let him push me backwards, along the grass, out into an open clearing when I pressed forward, obviously without too much warning as I managed to knock his katana into a nearby tree. We stood there, eyes locked. 

                She just stood there, after I had let her win. We said nothing, just let the rain wash over us. For some unknown reason, the silence was awkward, like when with normal humans, but comfortable, letting us relax, our shoulders tense from the battle.

                "You let me win." I held my silence. I saw no reason to end it. She slowly lowered her weapon, finally dropping it onto the wet grass. My fingers clenched slightly, uneasily. Being unarmed with this girl was, to say the least, not uncomfortable, which is _why_ I felt uneasy. There was no reason for either of us to trust the other to not suddenly attack to kill, yet we did. However, I could feel the girl was unwilling to take any fight as far as death. She slowly lowered herself to one knee, then the other, and sat back, her poker face, almost as good as Kurama's, still in place. My face stayed thankfully blank. She opened her mouth with intention suddenly, paused, and closed it again. I raised an eyebrow. She gave in to a smile that seemed to have been at the edge of her conscience already, when she began again.

                "Won't you come sit with me, Hiei?" His eyes narrowed. I suppressed a deep sigh. I still had everything left to say ahead of me. And, yet… I jumped up again, grabbing my kiribayashi. "Would you like another go?" His eyebrow shot up again, and I smirked slightly. This guy was hilarious. He was gone, suddenly, returning with his katana. I didn't need a verbal answer.

                "We've been fighting for around a half hour."

                "So?"

                "Don't you want a brake?"  
                "Hn." I sighed. What did it take to get a sentence out of this guy. However… I had never been this alive before.  Every instant lasted forever, and yet they all ran together in a mad rush of rain. I had almost always fought with only a small purpose, mostly foolish little things. But now, everything had changed. It was like my whole life was based upon beating him, here and now, while trying to lengthen the fight, prolong the small chance I got to be with him. I had met only two in battle that had made me this happy, Ryoko Mitsurugi and Shizuma taking those slots. This was the granduer of fighting. This was the type of moment I had spent my whole life preparing for. I paused waiting for him to figure out I had stopped chasing him. He was there in an instant. I stood against the tree, soaked to the bone, as he stood in the middle of the clearing the second round had started in, his hair blown every-which-way, the white bandana almost fallen off, his clothes drenched enough one could drown in them. This was the Hiei I had spent the last forty-five minutes getting to know as well as Mitsurugi and Shizuma. Yet, I could tell he was not human, he had something under that bandana, but it didn't matter. This was what I lived for, this rush, the wind, speed, intoxicating feeling of metal on metal. Living life on the edge… that, now, was all that mattered. The rest of the world could drop away, and I might not even notice. My eyes softened slightly. I had found myself. I could go anywhere, do anything now, with this feeling. I had been lost for so long…

                My eyes narrowed. She just sat there, looking at me with this odd expression on her face, almost wistful, her kiribayashi dormant at her side. I relaxed slightly. She wouldn't be attacking for a few moments now. I allowed my mind to begin organizing the last few moments.

                This whole fight was… better than anything I had ever felt. The usual rush of battle was unquenched, untouched by fans or crowds or teammates.  Only one other person, the trees, the rain… Only flesh, blood, metal, metal on metal. That was all I had felt for the last half-hour, without a doubt in my mind. I had only once before had a fight I enjoyed this much, with Kurama in our first meeting, but we had not been completely equal, more of a touch, tap sort of fight, but with the same familiarity upon it. She knew what she was doing, for sure. Fights like this… This was as exhilarating as when Yusuke had fought Chuu, that sort of close, martial fighting that had no ties, nothing to hold back for, nothing to gain, really. 

                I had always wanted that. To just fight, not to kill, or be killed, or to win a prize, or to save someone. Just, to feel metal on metal, to hear the sound of feet on grass, rain on skin, to see the other person working just as hard as you… That was what this was all about. That was all…

                Yukina had always made it her business to make sure everyone else was happy, while Kuwabara had made sure everyone was safe. Yusuke just tried to make sure he and everyone else had fun, while Keiko cared for everyone's well-being in all circumstances, while Kurama… was always just to live, to do what he must, but to live and smell the flowers, as well as Shizuru. I had never even thought of what I had wanted to do, just to fight. Because, that's all I wanted to do. Fight, like this, in the rain. I started forward, when she raised her hand, motioning for me to halt. The wind had started up, full force, and our hair was going everywhere. She pointed to her side, at a small batch of flowers. When I had turned my attention back to her, she had pulled her jacket off, placing it delicately over the flowers. She smiled at me slightly.

                "You'll have to take a rain check on the end of our fight!" She waved at the flowers, some small roses, a few wild flowers, and mostly tiger lilies. She crouched over them, looking up at me. "I don't want these to get blown away! I've never seen tiger lilies in the park before, and I'd like to take care of these!" I blinked in surprise. After all that, she's wasting her energy on a few flowers. I sighed, deeply, from the bottom of my toes, and whisked off my coat. She was right, of course, these were the only flowers in the whole park like this, and in neat rows, as well. I made my way over to her, covering the remaining flowers with my overcoat. She looked up, surprise showing in her dark eyes, before the glistened with moisture from who-knows-where. She smiled, a deep, affectionate smile I hadn't seen her use.

                "Thank you, Hiei-san." I mentally gagged. 

                /_Pitiful human./_ This/ _is why I hate emotions. And flowers, for that matter./_


End file.
